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Basra's Wary Rebirth
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"Before, we were restricted. We felt we were being monitored," Ali said. "You can relish your freedom now."
"It is for her sake we went out," his wife, who wore a gold-colored head scarf, said as she looked at their daughter, who laughed and squealed throughout the ride.
'The Government Is Still the Same'
Basra's transformation is far from uniform, unfolding mostly on the surface.
It is still extremely rare to see women, even Christians, on the streets without a head scarf. Many women wear the black, head-to-toe abaya, either out of conservatism or fear.
"We're still cautious," Fatima said. "Anything can still happen."
On Al Jazaar Street, the city's most popular commercial district, Dhiya Jassim cranked up the 3,000-watt speakers in his DVD store, blasting a song by Egyptian pop star Amru Diab. The walls were covered with Western DVDs, many with sexually explicit scenes that would have drawn the ire of the extremists.
His dream is to open an arcade shop with sophisticated computer games, once forbidden.
"I am nervous that the black days could return," he said. "We're still afraid to start any big projects."
Samer Riad, 23, an artist, is still reluctant to paint portraits of women, another practice outlawed by the fundamentalists.
"I have canceled this idea from my mind," he said. He continues to draw portraits of shanasheels, the wooden grills that cover many balconies here, from which women can look without being seen by the world outside.
"I will not be restricted by anything, if this lasts," said Riad, referring to the security improvements.
In 2005, extremists ordered Mohammed, a plastic surgeon, to shut down his practice. "You are changing what God had created," he recalled them telling him. He refused -- at first.
